President-elect Donald Trump’s policies on illegal immigration, particularly on the border wall and cracking down on sanctuary cities, were at the center of his election campaign. Now, advocates of immigration restriction are hoping for reform to H-1B visas that they say are hurting American workers.

The H-1B is a temporary, non-immigrant visa, currently capped at 85,000 visas a year, that allows employers to hire skilled, specialty workers on a temporary basis -- particularly scientists, engineers, or computer programmers.

However, critics say that the system is rife with abuse, and is no longer a limited short-term program to help employers with unexpected labor shortages in niche areas, and has instead become a way to push out American workers in favor of cheap foreign labor.

“Because of lobbying by the Chamber of Commerce and big tech companies, they’ve succeeded in loosening standards and we’ve seen the increasingly common scenario where American workers are fired, and have to train their replacements,” Dan Stein, President of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told FoxNews.com.

Trump has shifted stances somewhat on the visas. After initially taking a hard stance against them, in contrast to some of his Republican opponents, at a primary debate in March he appeared to change his stance and said: “I’m changing. I’m changing. We need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can’t do it, we’ll get them in.”

He later released a statement saying the H-1B program “is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.”

“I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions,” he said.

While Sessions’ appointment may put those companies who use the system on edge, analysts say there is still a long way to go in appointments.

“I think companies are in wait-and see mode, By the time of inauguration there’ll be a clearer sense of who will be head of Council of Economic Advisors and the Department of Labor. There’ll be a better sense of the team and that will tell the tech companies something,” Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), told FoxNews.com.

The plight of American workers being replaced was highlighted earlier this year when laid-off Disney IT workers sued the company, claiming that despite high performance ratings, they were made to train their foreign replacements. In February, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from some of those laid off. Presiding over the hearing was Sen. Jeff Sessions.

Adams Nager, economic policy analyst at ITIF, found that unemployment in STEM fields is very low, and concludes that, despite occasional stories of lay-offs, “America faces a shortage of high-skilled STEM talent, especially in IT industries.”

Those opposed to the current state of the program say there are a number of things a Trump administration could do without needing whole-scale reform from Congress.

“One of those is to collect the data and make it available to the public. That would strike horror into the industry,” John Miano, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told FoxNews.com “This has been kept secret or not collected. We don’t know who are getting the visas, we don’t know where the people are, what occupations they’re in or what the salary is.”

Other possible reforms include a clarification on the definition of “specialized knowledge,” which could help cut down on abuse, and a limit on such visas for two years.

Proponents on both side of the issue agree that, despite the pick of Sessions as AG, it is not yet clear which way the administration will fall on the issue. Trump’s official website makes no mention of H-1Bs on the immigration policy page. But those who want significant reform are hopeful in the wake of the Sessions pick.

“H-1B spans the Department of Justice, Labor Department and USCIS [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services]. There’s hope you’d have people at all three levels enforcing the law, and Sessions gives us hope they’ll start doing that,” Miano said.

Hopefully. Now I don't necessarily think it should be abolished completely, but it's definitely abused. They already have another visa for actual like Einstein-level intelligent people, it's just companies usually translate "best and brightest" with "cheap indentured servants"

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SeeingThings

December 3. 2016 13:06

Jeff Sessions has been a rare senator - running un-opposed for the senate, he has not needed to resort to the sort of campaign funding that ties other senators to their donors. The last time he was up for re-election, I wanted to donate to his campaign to help support having an ally in the senate even though I do not live in Alabama. His office politely told me they did not need the money. I am pleased that he will be joining the cabinet and expect he will use his influence to support American workers.

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James

December 3. 2016 16:53

There is no shortage, never was.

Americans created and built Silicon Valley.

India has never created anything.

USA doesn't need these parasites, they need the USA - for jobs and to loot and remit USD right out of the US back to their banks in India so they can pay cash for a nice villa in Mumbai and live it up. NRIs export $65 BILLION in remittances every single year out of the US economy. Indians have a saying: "Loot and remit, die for dollars, outfox the Yankees".

Sites like xoom.com and remit2india.com help them loot USA out. In China it is (wisely) illegal to take currency out of the country.

India, NASSCOM, and subversive US lobby USIN-PAC which must be outlawed all PAY the US CoC, Congress, and most managers and execs at US companies to keep this looting congame going. Spineless sellouts in those organizations are all too happy to take the cash. That's why the US econ is such a wreck folks!

Trump is going to put an end to it all!

Looks like India better find a new host to live off because its days of raping American workers are OVER.

Well I voted for Trump in hopes that he actually does something real to get rid of the H1b corruption. We shall see in time what he does in reality. Corruption has destroyed America from within and without.

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ratpatrol

December 4. 2016 18:50

by the time i ever get a job...oh well just carve my resume onto my gravestone

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Mr. X

December 5. 2016 12:42

Students are the new slaves. Chinese companies are also in the slave trade business, flooding US colleges with Chinese students by all means necessary, including fraud.
qz.com/.../

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MAGA

December 6. 2016 10:12

All the posters who were smugly saying just a month ago that Trump didn't have a chance and Hillary would be approving more H1-Bs are now silent. I am waiting for the crackdowns on the H1-B fraudsters.

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ProAmWkr

December 8. 2016 13:25

My vote and support went to Trump ever since the ex-Disney work who was replaced with visa worker was invited to one of his early rallies.

I hope Trump can really help us.

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James

December 9. 2016 23:20

Trump just put in Exxon Mobile CEO as Sec. of State and Carl's Jr. CEO as Sec of Labor!

All the poorly educated slum dogs will now have to find something else to lie about on their resumes. And the corrupt corporations will have to start paying American salaries again and shut down the curry dens.

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cutter

December 17. 2016 04:34

So, in advance of Trump’s meeting yesterday with Silicon Valley CEOs, I was expecting him to endorse Staple again. But I certainly wasn’t expecting this account from Recode:

At the top of the gathering (I may not have the order of all the topics exactly right), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella brought up perhaps the most thorny issue: Immigration and how the government can help tech with things like H-1B visas to keep and bring in more talent. Nadella pointed out that much of the company’s spending on research and development was in the U.S., even if 50 percent of the sales were elsewhere, so that immigration would benefit those here.

Surprisingly to the group, Trump apparently responded favorably, “Let’s fix that,” he said, without a specific promise, and then asked, “What can I do to make it better?”

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indian

December 18. 2016 00:47

Trump won't do anything. He is a corporate guy, completely allied with the silicon valley bosses who always want more cheap workers.

Trump won't do anything for white people in general either. Indians, blacks, jews, mexicans, asians, we are all Americans now. We aren't going anywhere.

Have your little celebration, because trust me, the next 4 years you will be drowning in sorry and alcohol as you realize you have another George Bush - a white man who doesn't care about white men.

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James

December 27. 2016 11:35

Sure the US is flooded with Asians, Jews, Mexicans, etc.

But look at what has happened to USA as a result: it's no longer a place anyone would want to live. At least not places like CA or NY or Miami. They are hellholes, the US in general has declined, and the US gov't is bankrupt. Companies like Microsoft have been trashed, and Apple is on its way. I mean seriously, Windows 10 is generic crap that is unremarkable. So is Android.

Does anyone really want to live in a grey, drab, Sovietized America?

This is what the Soviets sought to do: make everyone and everything uniform and look where it got them. Collapse always follows, and no one would want to live there.

So have your little multi-cultural party dummies. You are destroying the very thing you wanted. And once that happens, there won't be anything left to live off of and loot. You might even actually have to work to create something on your own (something Asia has never done).

Every successful system attracts parasites.

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skp

December 31. 2016 08:43

Hello tunnel rat,

I am trying to contact you about L1 visa abuse. But the contact form on the site is not working. Can you please let me how to contact you.

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